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Posted by: Ryan Allen on August 29, 2008 at 9:00 am

Sort of by accident, today has become “Power Pop Day” here at Detour. Now, we realize some of you might be muttering, “What the hell shit is power pop? Where is my latest link to the new hot shit Girl Talk remix?” To that we say, “Relax, future iTunes DJ! We’ll be back to regularly scheduled content next week.” Or, we could just not say anything at all, and link to the Wiki entry on the genre. We could also just tell you to go re-listen to all your New Pornographers records. Or, even better still, we could point ya’ll in the direction of to twolists featuring all your favorite indie rockers naming off their choice power pop jams, courtesy of Magnet Magazine (thanks bros!). Then you could easily do a search on your favorite torrent and grab whatever peaks your interest. Because quite honestly, it would take up way too much space to name bands, explain the genre, and go through some kind of long and involved oral history that has honestly been done before, and probably much better than we could do (and seriously, do even have that much time at work, what, with all the Tetris and Facebooking you have to get to?).

So instead, we’re going to start the day off right by offering you FREE MUSIC. In case you forgot, free music is awesome, especially when said free music is not only also awesome, but currently out of print. The out of print awesome free music in question that we bring you today comes courtesy of underrated pop maestro Emitt Rhodes, and his 1970 self-titled solo debut. After parting ways with his group the Merry-Go Round in 1969, Rhodes cut this fantastic, dazzling, catchy, yet totally humble effort himself, DIY-style, playing all the instruments, and handling all the production and engineering duties. Any fan of Badfinger, Matthew Sweet (whose new record we’ll review today) or any of the “good” Paul McCartney songs will surely love this. So please, do yourself a favor, and download it now. (Thanks to Kempa.com for the link, and for Learning To Share Blogfor the download) — Ryan Allen

Bonus Link!: Download the totally amazing two volume set The Roots of Power Pop — featuring Detroit’s very own the Romantics! — right here and right here. It’s like a crash-course in all that is the melodic wonder we call, of course, power pop.